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Credit Plus, a provider of reliable data and verifications for all stages of the mortgage lending process, is offering LeadsFINDER PLUS, a professional and personalized mortgage lead generation program. Here’s how it works:

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“As 2019 began to unfold, we realized mortgage lenders need access to more qualified leads, but they don’t want to be limited by minimum requirements,” said Greg Holmes, Managing Partner at Credit Plus. “Our lead database is robust and allows lenders to select from numerous attributes.”

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Credit Plus utilizes a pre-screen database of 160 million names that is updated frequently. A targeted list of qualified leads can be built by choosing among a long list of attributes including credit score range, LTV, bankruptcies, trade line information and more.

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Marketing pieces available

Lenders can extend prospects a firm offer of credit quickly by selecting a marketing piece from the Credit Plus library that can be customized with the company’s name, logo and contact information. The list and marketing piece can be delivered directly to a printer and mail house.

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Monitor existing portfolio

Through LeadsFINDER PLUS, lenders can also monitor their existing portfolios and be alerted when someone is shopping for a mortgage.

LeadsFINDER PLUS is one of the products featured in CloseCAPTURE, a suite of products designed to help lenders reduce loan fallout, qualify more applicants and close more loans. More information and a video on CloseCAPTURE can be viewed by clicking here.

With the Credit Plus Collection, its suite of verification services, lenders can successfully close more loans and better manage their risk. Credit Plus’ expertise in the mortgage industry enables it to quickly assess current and future needs, and provide new solutions for a rapidly changing environment. Credit Plus moves mortgage professionals forward.

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We, as a country, have made huge strides since the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. The U.S. luckily came to the realization that all of its citizens, regardless of race, must have the opportunity to succeed in every facet of life if our country was to succeed as a whole. The disparity in minority homeownership and access to capital for that purpose came to the forefront of the national discussion, which prompted Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act as part of the broader Civil Right Act in 1968. Despite this crucial piece of legislation, it was discovered that banks were engaging in a practice called redlining, which essentially identified low to moderate income neighborhoods and refused to make loans to any residents of the residents therein. This obviously had a disparate impact on minorities who made up the majority of residents in these low to moderate income areas. To combat this practice, the Community Reinvestment Act was signed into law in 1977 which required banks to ensure that all communities that they served were afforded equal access to capital.

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Despite these regulations, the debate about access to housing for minorities, and the home ownership divide still rages today. Unfortunately, a very large gap still exists between white and minority homeownership despite the concerted effort to remedy the issue. The Urban Institute presented data analyzed by the American Community Survey from the 100 cities with the largest number of black households. Its analysis found that Minneapolis, Minnesota had the largest disparity where the white homeownership rate was 74.8 percent compared to a black homeownership rate of just 24.8 percent; a 50 percent gap. The smallest disparity was observed in Killeen, Texas where the rates of white and black homeownership were 63 percent and 48.5 percent, respectively; a 14.5 percent gap. According to the US Census Bureau, the overall homeownership rate for black households across the country has reached a 50 year low of 41.7 percent. Our country has not seen homeownership rates this low in black communities since before the enactment of the Fair Housing Act, when it was still legal to discriminate on the basis of race.

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Hispanic homeownership rates, although slightly higher, still pale in comparison to the national average. According to the US Census Bureau, the Hispanic homeownership rate was at 46.2 percent as of 2017, 17.7 percentage points lower than the overall national average of 63.9 percent. Freddy Mac released a report entitled “Will the Hispanic Homeownership Gap Persist” in which it estimates that Hispanics will close the gap with white homeownership rates by 5.1 percentage points by 2035. However, it bases this projection on past immigration patterns which, in this day and age, are far from certain to repeat themselves.

Many experts believe that the housing bubble and subsequent 2008 recession is the number one contributing factor to the current gap in homeownership. Although the recession impacted all Americans negatively, regardless of demographic, it had a disproportionate impact on minorities who purchased homes at much higher rates during the height of the market. Furthermore, many minority borrowers were steered toward subprime loans despite the availability of other financing options, which resulted in several banks settling for millions of dollars with the Justice Department.

Although the effects of the recession still affect the vast majority of Americans, they are amplified within minority groups in terms of the lingering damage to their credit. The credit profiles for the majority of those individuals who were able to obtain a mortgage just prior the recession have been scarred by foreclosures and, in many instances, crippling credit card debt incurred in the aftermath to cover necessities. Because these factors can affect credit scores for years, without assistance, the future looks bleak for many of these past borrowers.

Minority credit issues, however, aren’t just limited to those individuals who were directly affected by the housing crisis. The Urban Institute reported that in 2013 only 41 percent of Hispanics and 33 percent of black Americans had credit scores over 720 compared to 64 percent of white borrowers. Minority groups, specifically those who are black or Hispanic, are often plagued by lower credit scores because of the methods by which various scoring models generate credit scores. The CFPB found that minority populations are more likely to be credit invisible because they are less likely to have traditional sources of credit such as loans and credit cards. One solution proposed by Experian in a 2015 white paper entitled “Let there Be Light”, was to incorporate utility bill payments into the credit analysis. The white paper estimated that the inclusion of this data could reduce the number of subprime borrowers by as much as 47 percent. Until alternative metrics are devised to take these extenuating circumstances into account, however, leaders in the housing industry must work to find solutions to bridge the homeownership gap.

Many financial institutions are required by law to provide loans and extend credit to those individuals in low to moderate income communities, but they must do so in a manner consistent with safe and sound operation. Although the spirit of the law is meant to help those populations that are traditionally underserved, many have argued that it is becoming increasingly difficult to lend in those areas because of the numerous factors discussed above. Many low to moderate income individuals, specifically minorities, do not have the necessary credit profile to qualify for the loans for which they apply. This often puts financial institutions in a bind. Although they are ready and willing to lend to qualified borrowers in those communities, precautions must be taken to safeguard the operation of their business.

Fortunately for banks and other lenders, there may be a way to not only assist those minority groups and lower income individuals who need it the most, but generate significant revenue by tapping into a market that would have otherwise been inaccessible. The solution is to partner with not for profit companies that provide consumers with credit remediation services in addition to other resources such as coaching and education. When choosing a partner, banks and lenders should ensure that their potential borrowers have access to educational resources which will enable them to understand ramifications of their financial decisions. Doing so will ensure responsible borrowing in the future, which will help consumers and lenders, alike.

It is also imperative that any potential partner have mechanisms in place to track, monitor, and measure progress and results. Doing so will ensure the generation of data that can be studied to evaluate efficiency and the impact on those minority and low to moderate income communities. Those metrics can then be utilized by governmental and regulatory bodies to decide how best to solve the problems faced by those communities going forward.

If key players in this sector are able to adopt and implement programs to help bridge the housing gap and raise the rates of minority homeownership, the industry as a whole will reap the benefits of a more robust market. There are an estimated 43 million black Americans in the U.S. and Hispanics, who are the fastest growing demographic, make up 18 percent of the population. These two groups represent billions of dollars in potential new loan opportunity. The only logical solution is to get these groups the assistance that they need in order to help eliminate any disparity while simultaneously to strengthening the housing market and our economy as a whole.

About The Author

Elizabeth Karwowski is the CEO of Get Credit Healthy, a technology company that has developed a proprietary process and solution, which seamlessly integrates with the lenders’ loan origination software (LOS) and customer relationship management software (CRM) in order to create new loan opportunity and recapture leads. Get Credit Healthy helped their partners create over $200M of new loan opportunities in 2017 alone, and plan on continued growth in 2018. As a recognized credit expert, Elizabeth has been featured on NBC and Fox News, and published in a number of financial industry publications.

In a recent Gallup poll, sales professionals were ranked lower on honesty than Congress. This exemplifies why consumers are increasingly looking to their peers, rather than companies, “gurus,” and experts for advice on what to buy, eat, listen to, read and watch. Amazon, for example, can attribute much of their success to mission-critical consumer reviews—raw peer-to-peer interaction that carries an enormous amount of weight in the hearts and minds of wary consumers.

As more people participate and contribute to social media, consumers are getting savvier by the day. The companies that thrive in this extreme vetting environment are the ones who boast salesmen who don’t actually sell!

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Over two million success and marketing books are published each year, and most of them are fluffy and useless. When added to the thousands of marketing articles that also come out annually, there is a ton of information to sort through to the point of information overload. This as online entrepreneurs and business owners face a tremendous number of obstacles when it comes to marketing their Internet-based companies. I know because I’ve been through them all and, in working through these adversities, I have developed a precise methodology to achieve long-term online marketing success.

As examples, here are three methods you can use right now to shorten your sales process and start to close sales without actually selling:

Garner reviews on both your website and third party websites that you do not control (Ex. Yelp, the BBB, and Google Business Pages)

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From my experience, people have an aversion to asking for reviews from customers. It is an uncomfortable part of the conversation if not handled correctly. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The most critical key is timing. The best time to ask for a review is after the service is complete and the customer is entirely satisfied and happy with the product or service. So how to do know when that is?. From my experience, customers appreciate the question and it and shows to them that you care about their happiness. After they have confirmed they are happy is the time to ask for a review. There is no need to be pushy about it. Plant the seed and let them know you will send them an email with a link to where they can post their feedback. It is as simple as saying, “is it alright if I send you a feedback email?” After the customer confirms, you have a commitment.

When sending the feedback request email, include a link directly to the URL where the customer can post a review. We want to make it as easy as possible for the customer.

It is best to get feedback on your website first because it is feedback that you control and have the option not to make public. If the customer provides a 5-star review on your review system, then email them again with the exact comment they posted, and include links to 3rd party sites like Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and Google Business.

Leverage your online reputation for building trust with potential customers

If you have garnered reviews on your website and third-party websites you are halfway there. It pains me to see companies with great reviews not make them visible on their sites. I think people consider it a form of bragging to display reviews. It is certainly not. From my testing, I have found that the last thing a customer does before making a purchase is a Google search for your company name followed by “reviews” or “complaints.” People want to verify that you run an honest business.

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I have found that displaying links to third-party review sites on your website shortens the sales process. People do not need to spend time searching your company online or contacting references. Potential customers know that you value your reputation. By leveraging your online reputation, you have built trust and conveyed accountability. This is the cornerstone of becoming a salesman who doesn’t sell.

Delegate, systematize, and automate the sales process so you can shorten the sales process and sell while you sleep

You have built up reviews and have them prominently displayed on your website. To keep the reviews coming in it is vital to make obtaining 5-star reviews a company-wide initiative that you can delegate. We have all our salespeople, and customer service representatives ask customers to leave feedback. We have found it helps to incentivize employees with bonuses tied to their reviews.

Reviews are a big part of shortening the sales process, though there are other sticking points. Make your frequently asked questions and terms and conditions visible to potential customers. As potential customers flow through your sales funnel, systematically answer their questions and concerns. What is your return policy? What is the time frame for delivery and shipping costs? Who do I contact for problems? Offer a way to make the purchase risk free by offering a free trial or money back guaranty.

To further lessen the resources needed in the sales process, automate as much as possible. Email software such as Active Campaign can send out an automated drip of emails. Tie into shipping carriers such as UPS, FedEx, and the USPS to automatically email tracking codes. Upload sales data to QuickBooks accounting software. Utilize a ticketing system like ZenDesk to answer customer service requests. There is a multitude of software solutions available to businesses to make conducting business more manageable.

Establishing an online reputation is like building up assets that produce dividends. Every time you contribute to your assets, you are building a foundation that will continue to bring in revenue for the long haul. I have two golden rules. The first is to treat your customers with the same quality of service that you would like to receive, and the second is that happy employees mean happy customers. With these fundamental concepts, businesses can build lean enterprises that will serve their customers, employees, and profits in the most successful manner.

About The Author

Brian Greenberg is a multi-faceted entrepreneur currently serving as a founder and executive of multiple online businesses, including serving as President of True Blue Life Insurance. Recognized as one of the most creative people in the insurance industry, Greenberg is in the world’s top one percent of life insurance and financial services professionals. He may be reached online at www.TrueBlueLifeInsurance.com

It’s tempting to slack off during the dog days of summer, but content marketing doesn’t take a vacation. If you want top dog results, the time to assess your efforts is now.

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According to John Hall, in his article “This Is the Perfect Time of Year to Assess Your Content,” summer is the perfect time to kick back, hang at the pool, and leave behind any worries you might have about the future of marketing.

Even if your audience members take time off for travel of their own, summer doesn’t mean you get a free pass on your content. While you keep doing what you’re doing and just wait for the next budget cycle to make any real changes to your content strategy, your competitors are building their brands and climbing to the top of your audiences’ minds.

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Content is a dynamic part of your marketing strategy. You’re going to need to check up on your performance and make tweaks to your plan more than once a year, and summer is a great time to assess your efforts and correct course if you need to.

By now, you should have at least a full quarter’s worth of data on your content marketing strategy to review. You should know how close you are to achieving the goals you set and which areas have presented the biggest challenges so far.

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Not only do you have enough usable data, but you also have a competitive advantage when it comes to getting your content published.

Online editors across industries and niches need more contributed content in June, July, and August than almost any other time of year. You can meet editors’ needs, engage your audience members, and contribute to your goals, all at the same time, if your strategy is set up correctly.

And if those aren’t reasons enough to keep up with your content and assess your plan, ask yourself: Would you rather know whether your content is effective now or when it’s budget time and you don’t have the results you need to lock in those dollars?

Content strategies rely on a lot of moving parts, and actually assessing your effectiveness can be challenging, especially if you don’t have anything to guide you through it.

To get started making changes that can impact your company for the rest of the year, follow these three tips:

1.) Retrace Your Steps

Go back to your original strategy and the goals you set. What metrics did you say you would track? How are you doing on that front so far?

Maybe your goal is lead generation. Did you meet your lead gen goal for the quarter? Or are you creating lots of content without seeing many leads? You could have seen good social shares this quarter and grown your Twitter following by 20 percent, but did your content actually help you reach the lead gen goal you set for it? Start by comparing your performance to the goal you want to reach.

2.) Diversify Your Content

Company blogs play a vital role in any content strategy, but if you lean on your blog to do all the work of a diverse content mix, it’ll be nearly impossible to see the results you want.

Content is a toolbox, and you have so many tools at your disposal: blog posts, sure, but also press mentions, email marketing, guest posts, and more. Your blog can’t do it all alone. Great content strategies use different types of content for different goals, so consider what you’ve tried so far and whether it’s actually working, then test adding new content deliverables to amplify your results.

3.) Stretch Your Work Further

Developing content is one thing, but using it properly is a whole other animal. Are you distributing your content and building links? Do you have a plan for how to go from content production to increased revenue or brand awareness? Do you have the tools you need to scale?

Don’t stop at content generation. Put in the work to expand the reach of your content. From paid amplification to email marketing to SEO audits, invest in your content to get the maximum return on your investment.

Marketers have a responsibility to keep an eye on their content’s performance all year, but summer is an especially good time to dig deep. Use the data you’ve collected, identify the gaps in your approach, and correct course for a more effective strategy throughout the rest of the year.

About The Author

Michael Hammond is chief strategy officer at PROGRESS in Lending Association and is the founder and president of NexLevel Advisors. They provide solutions in business development, strategic selling, marketing, public relations and social media. He has close to two decades of leadership, management, marketing, sales and technical product experience. Michael held prior executive positions such as CEO, CMO, VP of Business Strategy, Director of Sales and Marketing and Director of Marketing for a number of leading companies. He is also only one of about 60 individuals to earn the Certified Mortgage Technologist (CMT) designation. Michael can be contacted via e-mail at mhammond@nexleveladvisors.com.

Regardless of who you’re selling to, lenders, servicers or the borrower, you have to have a clear strategy and you have to execute. That’s essential. But even before that, famed consultant Jill Konrath challenges people in her article “The Experience of You” that you should start by asking yourself: Would you buy something from yourself?

Konrath goes further to say that you should imagine yourself as someone who’s always involved in the buying decision for your product/service. Here’s the scenario: You’re busy. Really busy. You’ve been in meetings all morning and by lunchtime you’re already two hours behind schedule.

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Grabbing a quick sandwich and chips at the vending machine, you sit down at your desk to try to catch up while you eat. Forty-two new emails sit in your inbox awaiting your response. A quick scan shows nothing requiring an immediate reply.

Checking voicemail, you hear that you have seven messages piled up. Since you’re expecting an important call, you’re forced to listen to each one. But your attention span is short. If the caller doesn’t pique your interest right away, they’re bleeped.

Right after lunch, you’re meeting with a salesperson that somehow managed to get on your calendar. You look at the work piled on your desk. There’s enough there to keep you busy for two weeks if you had nothing else to do but finish it.

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Your stomach wretches with the dread of another non-productive meeting. You have no patience for sellers who ask trite questions to which they should already know the answer.

You don’t want to hear about their products or service. Nor do you want to add any more complexity or change to what you’re already doing—even for just a short while. You can’t keep up as it is.

That’s the reality facing most buyers today.

If you’re like most sellers, your approach is creating your own problems. If you’ve been in sales for a long time, you’re likely using the same strategies and techniques you learned long ago. If you’re new to sales, you’re likely being trained on skills that worked just a few short years ago but are no longer effective.

Sales success today requires you to be distinct or face becoming extinct. In The Experience Economy, authors Pine and Gilmore write that future economic growth lies in the value of experiences and transformations. An interesting thought to ponder. What relevance could it possibly have for people who sell?

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The truth is that every interaction you have with prospective customers is either a positive or a negative experience—never neutral. If your prospect feels they received value from your interaction, you get a second chance. If not, you’re out.

Sharing information about your product or service contributes virtually nothing to the value equation. It’s assumed that you will say only good things about your offering.

Additionally, buyers perceive that what you sell is nearly identical to your competitors – whether you think it is or not. As far as they’re concerned, everything is a commodity or soon will be.

Rich and compelling experiences are created by sellers who recognize the shift that’s taken place in the market. They study their prospect’s business problems and goals. They constantly search for information that their prospects would find valuable.

When they talk with their prospects, they bring along ideas and insights into what’s happening in the marketplace, with their prospect’s customers or with their competitors. They challenge their customer’s paradigm of what it takes to be successful and get them thinking.

These “experiences” don’t just happen serendipitously. You have to immerse yourself in your prospect’s business, market segment, industry and more. You need to continually be asking, “How can I help my customers achieve their goals or solve their problems?”

As a person who sells, your job is to orchestrate this rich and compelling experience. You can’t leave it up to happenstance.

Authors Pine and Ginsmore further advocate that customers should pay for this “experience.” With that in mind, I’ll leave you with one final thought:

Would your prospects willingly pay $500 for an hour of your time?

Think about that each time you meet with a potential buyer and make it happen. Your competitors won’t stand a chance.

About The Author

Michael Hammond is chief strategy officer at PROGRESS in Lending Association and is the founder and president of NexLevel Advisors. They provide solutions in business development, strategic selling, marketing, public relations and social media. He has close to two decades of leadership, management, marketing, sales and technical product experience. Michael held prior executive positions such as CEO, CMO, VP of Business Strategy, Director of Sales and Marketing and Director of Marketing for a number of leading companies. He is also only one of about 60 individuals to earn the Certified Mortgage Technologist (CMT) designation. Michael can be contacted via e-mail at mhammond@nexleveladvisors.com.

At this time of year there are a number of articles that focus on the key trends in a certain discipline or industry for the coming year. I found some interesting articles on marketing trends for 2018. Here is what some of the predictions included.

In an article entitled “5 Trends Marketers Need to Prepare For In 2018” by AJ Agrawal, CONTRIBUTOR to Forbes, he states.

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1.) Establishing A Conversation

In 2018, look for marketers who are doing more than ever before to generate high-quality, relevant content and optimize their sites to encourage users to participate in the content they share. Marketers will need to find ways to connect more authentically and leverage social listening to strategize successfully in the new year.

2.) Short Planning Cycles

When it comes to marketing strategy, it’s important not to get too far ahead of yourself. Consumer tastes change frequently, so businesses can’t put all their advertising eggs in one basket. Kate Sayre, global head of consumer goods strategy at Facebook, explains that when it comes to marketing, the only real constant is change: “We do six-month planning cycles at Facebook because we don’t know the future. A lot of it is driven by the consumer.”

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3.) Contextual Marketing

Contextual marketing is driven by the insights afforded by big data, including market and customer analysis and predictive analytics; understanding the context in which consumers seek to engage with your brand can help you determine customer intent and drive conversions. Contextual marketing is the future of marketing, as consumers continue to demand greater personalization online.

4.) Purpose Driven Purchasing

As much as 79 percent of consumers would prefer to purchase products from a company that operates with a social purpose, and high-performing marketers are more than two times more likely to be leveraging purpose-driven marketing methods.

5.) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

“In 2018, chatbots will become a far more common solution for brands wishing to serve their customers in a smarter and more cost-effective way,” explains Matt Navarra, director of social media at TheNextWeb. “With AI now being easier to integrate into various tools and services, chatbots will become far more useful and personalized with each interaction it has with users.” Artificial intelligence will also help to power big data interpretation and analysis, making it possible for startups to glean greater insight from the information collected.

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AJ’s predictions got me thinking about what which marketing trends the mortgage industry will see in 2018.

>>Content is Still King. You must be able to create and deliver highly relevant content when and where your potential borrower is ready to consume it. The content must be specific to that individual and help them along their specific home buying journey.

>>Big Data and Analytics. There is an enormous amount of data available about your potential borrowers. The lenders that can best utilize this data and turn it into meaningful content can engage with potential borrowers before they begin shopping around for the best mortgage rates.

>>Mobile. Mobile is not just important in delivering on the digital mortgage, it actually begins when the potential borrower begins their housing search. This usually starts on mobile devices; therefore, your mortgage marketing must be mobile and highly engaging to capture their attention and to keep them engaged.

>>The Need for Print & Digital. While more and more of today’s borrowers are starting their searches online and looking for a digital mortgage experience, what we have found is that the most engaging mortgage marketing campaigns combine both print materials that are highly personalized to that specific borrower and digital marketing. Because so many people are getting inundated with emails and digital ads, combining strategically placed print with your digital campaigns truly captures the attention of the borrower.

>>Marketing Automation. The days of lenders using their outdated CRM or email marketing tools to drive business are long gone. With big data, analytics, the need for personalization, and the need for event triggers to send highly targeted marketing materials at the exact time the potential borrower will consume them requires sophisticated marketing automation.

What mortgage marketing trends do you think lenders are looking to incorporate in 2018?

About The Author

Brandon Perry is President at The Turning Point. Brandon oversees all operational and administrative activities of TTP. Brandon brings over 16 years of experience in various financial services industries to TTP which enhances the Company’s ability to maintain it’s position as industry leader in providing customers with an advanced marketing solution.

In today’s hyper-competitive mortgage market with fluctuating rates, low inventories, and changing borrower expectations, it is vital for lenders to truly understand their target audience if they want to attract new borrowers.

In an article entitled “How to Define Your Target Market” by Mandy Porta from Inc.com, Porta addresses this topic and states, “To build a solid foundation for your business, you must first identify your typical customer and tailor your marketing pitch accordingly.”

“Given the current state of the economy, having a well-defined target market is more important than ever. No one can afford to target everyone. Small businesses can effectively compete with large companies by targeting a niche market.”

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“Many businesses say they target “anyone interested in my services.” Some say they target small-business owners, homeowners, or stay-at-home moms. All of these targets are too general.”

The mistake a number of lenders make is trying to appease every possible potential borrower instead of focusing their marketing message and materials to a specific or a limited number of target audiences.

In addition, Porta says, “Targeting a specific market does not mean that you are excluding people who do not fit your criteria. Rather, target marketing allows you to focus your marketing dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets. This is a much more affordable, efficient, and effective way to reach potential clients and generate business.”

For example, “an interior design company could choose to market to homeowners between the ages of 35 and 65 with incomes of $150,000-plus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. To define the market even further, the company could choose to target only those interested in kitchen and bath remodeling and traditional styles. This market could be broken down into two niches: parents on the go and retiring baby boomers.”

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By clearly defining your target audience, your marketing materials and value propositions can be much more specific, personalized, and meaningful to your prospective borrowers.

Porta goes on to state, “With a clearly defined target audience, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your company.” Here are some tips she provides to help you define your target market.

“Look at your current customer base.

Who are your current customers, and why do they buy from you? Look for common characteristics and interests. Which ones bring in the most business? It is very likely that other people like them could also benefit from your product/service.

Check out your competition.

Who are your competitors targeting? Who are their current customers? Don’t go after the same market. You may find a niche market that they are overlooking.

Analyze your product/service.

Write out a list of each feature of your product or service. Next to each feature, list the benefits it provides (and the benefits of those benefits). For example, a graphic designer offers high-quality design services. The benefit is a professional company image. A professional image will attract more customers because they see the company as professional and trustworthy. So ultimately, the benefit of high-quality design is gaining more customers and making more money.

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Once you have your benefits listed, make a list of people who have a need that your benefit fulfills. For example, a graphic designer could choose to target businesses interested in increasing their client base. While this is still too general, you now have a base to start from.

Choose specific demographics to target.

Figure out not only who has a need for your product or service, but also who is most likely to buy it. Think about the following factors:

>>Age

>>Location

>>Gender

>>Income level

>>Education level

>>Marital or family status

>>Occupation

>>Ethnic background

Consider the psychographics of your target.

Psychographics are the more personal characteristics of a person, including:

>>Personality

>>Attitudes

>>Values

>>Interests/hobbies

>>Lifestyles

>>Behavior

Determine how your product or service will fit into your target’s lifestyle. How and when will your target use the product? What features are most appealing to your target? What media does your target turn to for information? Does your target read the newspaper, search online, or attend particular events?

Evaluate your decision.

Once you’ve decided on a target market, be sure to consider these questions:

>>Are there enough people who fit my criteria?

>>Will my target really benefit from my product/service? Will they see a need for it?

>>Do I understand what drives my target to make decisions?

>>Can they afford my product/service?

>>Can I reach them with my message? Are they easily accessible?

While targeting is a very powerful tool to help maximize marketing dollars and results, it is important to prudently carve out your niche. Companies can get too narrow with their focus and have a very limited number of prospects to market to.

Porta’s tip, “If you can reach both niches effectively with the same message, then maybe you have broken down your market too far. Also, if you find there are only 50 people that fit all of your criteria, maybe you should reevaluate your target. The trick is to find that perfect balance.”

She concludes with, “Defining your target market is the hard part. Once you know who you are targeting, it is much easier to figure out which media you can use to reach them and what marketing messages will resonate with them. Instead of sending direct mail to everyone in your ZIP code, you can send it only to those who fit your criteria. Save money and get a better return on investment by defining your target audience.”

Knowing your target audience will not only save you money on your marketing but it will also deliver greater results as you look to attract more new borrowers in today’s highly competitive mortgage market.

About The Author

Brandon Perry is President at The Turning Point. Brandon oversees all operational and administrative activities of TTP. Brandon brings over 16 years of experience in various financial services industries to TTP which enhances the Company’s ability to maintain it’s position as industry leader in providing customers with an advanced marketing solution.

Believe it or not, we’re in 2017. So, you have to do everything possible to make this a banner year for your company. In the article entitled, “Want to Make 2017 Your Best Year Ever? This Olympic Coach Has a Super Simple Solution” by Chris Winfield, he asks if you ever had parts of your business or personal life that never change, despite your best efforts.

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Of course you have. According to Herman, everyone has. He’s helped Olympians, billionaires and professional athletes make those changes and break-through to new levels of performance.

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And he says it always starts with “game film” — regardless of if his client is a professional athlete, a movie star or an entrepreneur.

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In professional sports, athletes and coaches watch game film to review their performances and find ways to improve. It’s no coincidence that many of the greatest players and coaches of all-time have also been the greatest “film students”.

For example, Kobe Bryant watched so much game film that he was affectionately referred to as a “video friend.”

Legendary NFL coach, Bill Belichick, has watched so much film that he’s developed an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the game. He’s even been known to spend up to 20 minutes dissecting one single play!

So, how do you break down your game? There are five simple questions to ask yourself when looking back at the previous twelve months. When doing this, Herman says it’s important to pay attention to the “unexpected” things that happened and not just your “wins”.

Is there anything you want to START doing?

A new year is all about starting something new, right? So when you look back at 2016, ask yourself if there’s anything you could have done that would have helped make it a more successful year. How can you start doing these things in 2017?

Is there anything you want to STOP doing?

What held you back this year? What would you like to eliminate from your life? Whether it’s eating too many brownies or spending too much time on social media — figure out how you can stop doing the things that aren’t helping you.

Is there anything that you want to CONTINUE doing?

What are the things that you are already doing that you’d like to keep doing in 2017?

With the next two questions, apply the 80/20 rule to what you spent the most time on during the year. You want to focus on the 20 percent of tasks that generate 80 percent of the benefit.

Is there something you want to do LESS of?

This your “eighty percent.” Decide how to eliminate, delegate or cut down on these activities.

Is there something that you want to do MORE of?

Figure out how you can spend more time on these activities.

Spend some quiet time to ask yourselves these simple questions and really break down what happened for you in 2016. Treat it like your own film session and have some fun with this.

This simple exercise will enable you to adjust your plans accordingly and drastically improve your performance in 2017!

About The Author

Michael Hammond is chief strategy officer at PROGRESS in Lending Association and is the founder and president of NexLevel Advisors. They provide solutions in business development, strategic selling, marketing, public relations and social media. He has close to two decades of leadership, management, marketing, sales and technical product experience. Michael held prior executive positions such as CEO, CMO, VP of Business Strategy, Director of Sales and Marketing and Director of Marketing for a number of leading companies. He is also only one of about 60 individuals to earn the Certified Mortgage Technologist (CMT) designation. Michael can be contacted via e-mail at mhammond@nexleveladvisors.com.

The mortgage industry has had a long run of good luck thanks to the low interest rate environment and consumer demand for homes. With rates remaining near historic lows and home prices rising, lenders have been handed a great growth opportunity. But not all lenders have chosen to or been able to take advantage of this opportunity.

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We only have to look at the rankings of the industry’s top lenders, which used to be dominated by the big commercial banks. Now there are a lot of new names on the list, such as Quicken Loans and loanDepot, which either didn’t exist 15 years ago or were just a fraction of their current size. Not coincidentally, they happen to be the most innovative lenders in the business.

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How have these lenders been able to make this jump without the benefit of a large servicing portfolio or wide brand-name recognition? The answer, simply put, is technology. These lenders have embraced the latest automated systems to make the mortgage process easier and faster for their customers and more economically efficient, which has paid off in increased volume that has pushed them to the top of the league tables.

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But these lenders don’t have a monopoly on this technology. In this article we will review three strategies that any lender can easily employ with what’s available from today’s technology providers.

Consumer habits have changed …

First of all, we need to appreciate how consumer buying habits and expectations have changed drastically over the last 15 or so years. Most consumers now shop online for everyday goods, while many prospective home owners search for a home online without the help of real estate agents. Borrowers seeking to refinance a mortgage either apply for a loan online or call a lender’s 800 number.

Today’s consumers want to be able to shop on their terms and on their own schedule. Many home searches take place after regular business hours and on weekends. How do lenders respond to this? The companies we’ve mentioned have adjusted to these changes in consumer buying habits by leveraging technology in all aspects of their processes.

On the other hand, many lenders have not adapted to this new reality and have failed to take full advantage of increased originations fueled by low interest rates. They have not realized the substantial ROI yielded by new technologies that help them adapt to this new reality.

… and so has financial technology

Financial technology vendors are now offering all lenders what used to be only available in costly proprietary systems. Now any lender can simply pay a monthly fee to access the same technology that the top lenders have deployed. It’s both easy to use and has a huge return on investment.

How can lenders leverage this technology to grow their business?

One way technology can help is by creating customers for life. Lenders work hard to find each borrower and to close each loan. If you deliver good service and stay in contact with your clients going forward, they will likely come back to you when they need to refinance or when they purchase their next home, even if you don’t have the lowest rates. It’s all about having the best service and staying connected.

Automated marketing

How do you keep your name in front of them? The easiest way is to use a system that allows for lifetime automated marketing, whether through email, direct mail or a phone call from the loan officer. Technology can you help you do this by ensuring that your customers get the message you want to send, when you want to send it, automatically.

But the message is just as important as the medium. Lenders must communicate compelling, relevant content at the right time. Fortunately, there are many technology providers who can help with this. They have the content and a system that will automate the communication. Many can also help with your communications strategy, providing guidance on when and what to send to customers. This can seem like a daunting task if you try to do it yourself, but today’s technology providers and their pre-built campaigns and collateral can help you get started.

An additional benefit to using an automated system is compliance. With compliance being so important with today’s lenders, having uniform material and messaging can help ensure you are being compliant in your communications with consumers.

Credit triggers

Another tactic employed by many top lenders in holding onto existing customers is by using credit triggers. This involves monitoring all of your closed-loan customers to see if and when their credit report is pulled for a loan application. This can help ensure that when your customer is in need of a new loan, you are there to help.

Monitoring past customers is actually fairly simple. Several technology providers can monitor credit inquiries for you. Simply send them your customer list, and then anytime a credit inquiry is made, they will alert you, usually within 24 hours. It’s important to note, however, that if you monitor credit reports and get alerted of an inquiry, you must make a firm offer of credit to the consumer. So when setting up your program, make sure you outline your credit criteria, so only those customers who meet your requirements will be sent to you.

But you also must to be able to respond promptly. Using this data and integrating it into your customer relationship management (CRM) system can alert your loan officers when customers are in the market so they can quickly respond with an appropriate offer.

Getting new customers

So far we have focused on how to get more business from your past customers. You may now be asking, how can you win new customers? There is good news on that front, too.

One of the largest growth areas is in consumer direct lending. Today 50 percent of all refinances and 20 percent of all purchase transactions come through a call center. Purchase mortgage volume alone has grown 10-20 percent through this channel in just the past five years. What’s driving it? Consumer buying behavior has changed. Most people are very comfortable with buying things online or from a remote business. And that includes getting a mortgage.

What’s needed to take advantage of that change is adopting technology that can offer a better customer experience. It starts from the initial contact. It’s imperative to reach your prospect quickly and have a compelling script the sales agent can use. Once that’s accomplished, the process then moves to getting the application from the prospect. But whether it’s done online or over the phone, creating a great user experience is critical. An easy-to-use CRM can help you capture the application easily and painlessly.

Once you have the application, you will need to provide and collect disclosures and borrower financials. This, too, is an area that demands a better consumer experience and where technology eases the process. There are several vendors that can obtain the applicant’s paystubs, W-2s, tax returns, bank statements and many other required financial documents online instantly.

Whether you are trying to retain more of your past customers or grow new business, there are many technology options for lenders that provide the experience consumers demand and expect today. The fact is, though, that many lenders aren’t responding to this demand. Instead, they are sitting back and letting their competitors steal their business. That’s good news if you’re one of those companies that is embracing this change. Not only will you see your volume and profitability grow, but you’ll be eliminating a lot of the competition.

About The Author

Josh Friend is founder and CEO of InSellerate, a specialized customer relationship management system that enables lenders to instantly connect to leads, manage their sales team in real-time and build strong long-term customer relationships through automated marketing campaigns.